BCG: The waning of a vaccine

Over a hundred years ago, L and eacute;on Charles Albert Calmette, Director of the Pasteur Institute at Saigon, gave up his post and joined hands with veterinarian and immunologist, Camille Gu and eacute;rinto begin one of the most fascinating journeys in medicine. For over 11 long years, surviving the ravages of World War I, Gu and eacute;rin and Calmette systematically weakened the bovine TB bacillus by serially culturing it over 230 times. The result of their exertions was the BCG vaccine, which to date has been the only TB vaccine used for mass immunization against a disease that kills over two million people each year.